On April 3, 1974, 40 years ago tomorrow, an F5 tornado devastated the city of Xenia, Ohio. Several events are planned there this week to remember how the city recovered. / Associated Press

Written by

Todd Hill

News Journal

With our snow season now apparently over and out, it’s time to turn our attention to the potential for severe storms.

In any event, local weather conditions will likely remind us of such events over the next couple of days. The cold front that was responsible for all our wind on Tuesday (Mansfield’s Lahm Airport had a peak gust of 48 mph, out of the southwest) has now stalled well to our south. That boundary will be the focal feature for several rounds of rain and storms, some possibly severe, for the remainder of the work week.

Right now the boundary is so far to our south that much of the rain associated with impulses riding along it may stay to our south as well. But we can expect the stationary front to wobble a bit back in our direction over the next few days.

Our next bout of rain, now in Illinois, should arrive here around 5 p.m. today, give or take an hour. After a showery Thursday, the real heavy weather is expected to blow in here late Thursday night into early Friday. Thunder is expected, and some storms could be severe.

High temperatures should range up into the 50s for highs for Wednesday and Thursday, and maybe the 60s on Friday, before we cool back down to the mid-40s on Saturday. Looking ahead to next week, I see forecast temperatures below normal, but only just barely. Of more concern are all the spring outlooks predicting abnormally wet conditions for Ohio, which could delay agricultural activities, already a bit behind schedule.

For the record, Mansfield’s Lahm Airport had a high temperature Tuesday of 70 degrees at 3:04 p.m., the city’s first 70-degree reading since Oct. 12 of last year.The climatological numbers for March are in. The month was 5.5 degrees colder than normal in Mansfield, cold enough to rank it as the 10th coldest March in Mansfield weather history, which dates back to 1916.

This past March was also drier than normal, by 1.55 inches of precipitation, and just a little snowier than normal, by 2.7 inches.